The Opinion of a ‘PROPER’ Criminologist.

[Nicholas]

UPDATED
👇
http://theerrorsthatplaguethemiscarriageofjusticemovement.home.blog/2023/04/13/killer-luke-mitchell-could-david-wilson-suffer-from-hybristophilia-part-176/

[Nicholas]

David Wilson did a TV show whereby he/and the producers/editors attempted to pretend convicted killer Bert Spencer was responsible for the so called ‘Bridgewater fours’ murder of Carl Bridgewater 

Michael Hickey (who confessed to Carl Bridgewater’s murder) should never have been released from prison!

And how he only got a suspended prison sentence with a murder conviction already under his belt - was a joke

http://Http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/carl-bridgewater-michael-hickey-robbery-15350011

https://www.hja.net/news-and-insights/hja-in-the-news/civil-liberties-human-rights/vincent-michael-hickeys-solicitor-welcomes-the-government-announcement-on-saved-living-expenses-deductions-for-miscarriage-of-justice-victims-but-it-doesnt-go-fa/

[Chris_Halkides]

Have you actually read about the numerous crimes of Michael Hickey?  He was a monster!  A vile specimen that deserved to be locked up for a very long time.

From a 2018 newspaper article:  "Ms Julia Morgan, defending, argued that Hickey suffered from mental health issues related to his time in prison for which he had been receiving treatment since his release in 1997."

A person deserves to be punished for the crimes he or she committed, not a crime he or she did not commit.  The police fitted him up for the murder of Carl Bridgewater.  There is also the issue of Mr. Hickey's mental health (see above), which the judge may have seen as a mitigating circumstance.

[Vertigo Swirl]

From a 2018 newspaper article:  "Ms Julia Morgan, defending, argued that Hickey suffered from mental health issues related to his time in prison for which he had been receiving treatment since his release in 1997."

A person deserves to be punished for the crimes he or she committed, not a crime he or she did not commit.  The police fitted him up for the murder of Carl Bridgewater.  There is also the issue of Mr. Hickey's mental health (see above), which the judge may have seen as a mitigating circumstance.

This alleged mental health issues were claimed to be as a result of his long incarceration, I am referring to the armed robberies he took part in which inflicted terror on members of the public including an elderly couple, prior to his incarceration.  He already had a criminal record by this point and was clearly a thorougly unpleasant individual, not someone to be revered as a martyr and a hero as some people appear to want to do. 

Theft Act 1968, s.8

(1) A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.

(2) A person guilty of robbery, or of an assault with intent to rob, shall on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for life.

[Nicholas]

PROFESSOR DAVID WILSON
Luke Mitchell should never have been charged, let alone convicted
12 hrs ago
CRIME

By David Wilson
Professor of Criminology 

I’ve never needed to be convinced that miscarriages of justice happen in Scotland.


I even wrote a book - Signs of Murder - about one such miscarriage that occurred after the murder of a young woman called Margaret McLaughlin in Carluke in July 1973. In that case the police “fitted up” a local man called George Beattie, who was a bit “soft”, enjoyed train spotting as a hobby and had a below average IQ. During his fourth police interview George would go on to give what I described as a “pseudo-confession”, in which he claimed that Margaret had been stabbed by men wearing tall hats with mirrors on them, and that he had been forced

In Signs of Murder I even recount tracking down the person I believe to have been more likely to have been Margaret’s killer and report a tense exchange that I had with him on his doorstep. He wasn’t pleased.

The publication of the book led to questions being asked in the Scottish parliament and raising hopes that George, at long last, might get exonerated for a crime that he most certainly did not commit.

However, slowly and silently, the Scottish judicial system clearly decided that George had served his sentence and so what was the point of re-opening old wounds and owning up to a collective failure of having got Margaret’s murder investigation and then George’s criminal prosecution so disastrously wrong.

I knew about Margaret’s murder because it happened in the town where I once lived, and two of my sisters still call Carluke home. I left to go to university and so all of my career has been in England. I really don’t know too much about Scottish cases – unless they come to be featured in Crime Files, which I present for BBC Scotland, or they have something about them which means they get covered south of the border. Crime reporting still tends to be regional, rather than national and even the story of “Bible John” is barely known in England.


However, at a public talk that I gave last December I was asked a question about Luke Mitchell, who had been convicted in 2005 for the murder of his girlfriend Jodi Jones, after her body had been found in woodland near Dalkeith in Midlothian in 2003. I can’t remember my exact reply, but I said that I knew the case was controversial and that it generated heated debate as Luke has never admitted his guilt even after nearly 20 years in prison, although Jodi’s family remain convinced that he’s the culprit. I had also become more aware of the case, I said, because I had viewed some of a two-part documentary on Channel 5 called Murder in a Small Town. However, such was the pressure of work, I hadn’t managed to watch the second episode.

Over the last few months, prompted by several emails I have at last been able to devote time to look more fully at Luke Mitchell’s case, and what I’ve seen gives me cause for concern. What happened to Luke almost echoes all the mistakes that took place within the investigation, trial and conviction of George Beattie and so my fear is that Jodi’s killer has never been caught and punished at all.

It took me two years to research and write Signs of Murder and even then I wasn’t privy to all of the materials that would normally have been made available to me if I had been conducting an official investigation. The same holds true for what I’ve been able to read and analyse about Jodi’s murder, and nor have I devoted two years to come to a conclusion. However, I have been able to: read transcripts from Luke’s trial; consult various appeals that were made on his behalf; looked at a range of newspaper commentary (some of which supported his conviction); watched Murder in a Small Town and also part of the Trials that Shocked Scotland series; listened to a podcast about the case – which also devoted most of an episode to Luke Mitchell speaking from prison (and he clearly is an intelligent man); and delved into some social media – which I can assure you is not for the faint-hearted.


So this range of materials can hardly be described as “definitive”. Nor have I been able to look at any surviving forensic evidence – there was none in George’s case – and, if press reports are to be believed, in the wake of the screening of the Channel 5 documentary, all of this was going to be destroyed in Luke’s case, until his solicitors stepped in to prevent its destruction.

However, even accepting that I could not access all of the materials I would have wanted, there is literally nothing – nothing - I could uncover that warranted Luke even being charged with Jodi’s murder, never mind being sent to trial. Instead there seemed to be a concerted press campaign to damage his character which served to support the police’s actions, and in much the same way that George’s reputation got tarnished by his pseudo-confession – he’s alluding to the pop group Slade with his reference to men wearing tall hats with mirrors on them – Luke gets similar treatment but this time it’s the American goth-rocker Marilyn Manson that’s harnessed to do the damage. There is no forensic evidence whatsoever to connect Luke to Jodi’s murder, despite the horrifying way in which she was killed. As with George, there were no “signs of murder” on his person, and nor is it true that his clothing was destroyed by his mother after the event. Witness testimony is weak, inconsistent and more than likely wrong, and about the only thing that I could see that needed to be investigated more fully was his part in the initial discovery of Jodi’s body. However, this was not just a case of circumstantial evidence leading to a conviction, but one of literally no evidence at all.


Nothing has happened as far as George Beattie’s miscarriage is concerned and my fear is that nothing will happen about Luke Mitchell’s either. The Scottish Criminal Justice System never seems keen to admit to its mistakes but, as I have always argued, a judicial system cannot call itself mature and civilised unless it’s prepared to hold its hands up and admit when it gets things wrong.

And that’s what they did in Luke Mitchell’s case – it got things wrong, and so for me Jodi’s killer is still to be brought to justice.

Professor David Wilson is emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University

More about David Wilson here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wilson_(criminologist)

How was scammer David Wilson able to read trial transcripts which hadn’t been transcribed before?

[Nicholas]

Do Not Trust Mis ”Leading Criminologists” Like David Wilson When It Comes To Murderers Like Sadist Luke Mitchell (Part 318)
👇🏼
http://theerrorsthatplaguethemiscarriageofjusticemovement.home.blog/2024/02/08/do-not-trust-mis-leading-criminologists-like-david-wilson-when-it-comes-to-murderers-like-luke-mitchell-318/

[rulesapply]

Is that the TV guy?

[Kenmair]

Is that the TV guy?

Yes. Talks with a golf ball in his mouth. First he claimed he agreed with the court verdict, then he didn't. Hasn't mentioned it since but I'd guarantee he'll never make a TV programme about LM.

[rulesapply]

He's a money TV CELEB. How's getting Luke pardoned going?

[rulesapply]

He's a TV guy. Making lots of money whilst just spouting whatever. Shame you weren't good enough to make it into TV Sandra (sh*t on Channel 5 doesn't count) 

[Kenmair]

He's a TV guy. Making lots of money whilst just spouting whatever. Shame you weren't good enough to make it into TV Sandra (sh*t on Channel 5 doesn't count)

Wilson will be hoisted by his own cravat given time. Sandra is driving a van for the council part-time and never been employed in criminal justice or been peer acclaimed in Criminology Monthly. I keep waiting for her to appear in one of the many ITV/C4/C5 true crime docs, but alas no. Maybe selling crystals on the shopping channel.

[Joe Blogs]

I watched a Jack the Ripper programme tonight hosted by Prof Wilson and Emilia Fox.
Very interesting show, the injuries to the Ripper victims were very similar to those inflicted to Jodi Jones,so therefore we can assume that both killers would have probably had a similar mind set.
Jack the Ripper used overkill which escalated with each murder ending with the complete destruction of Mary Kelly.
There was certainly overkill with Jodi too.
There was severe disfigurement to the faces of the Ripper victims as well as Jodi, which Prof Wilson puts down to misogyny.So Jodi's killer was a women [ censored word ]?
The other injuries to the Ripper victims body's were done for sick kicks as we know, which may have included piquerism as suggested with Jodi Jone's too.
Jack the Ripper is now believed to be Aaron Kosminsy who had paranoia and audio hallucinations, he claimed voices in his head told him to kill the women.
So obviously Jack the Ripper was severely mentally ill, and had been for a few years before he started on his insane killing spree!
This makes sense, surely you would need to be very ill to kill innocent women at random without any provocation?
People, or men in particular who hate women usually dont interact with the opposite sex very well either.
So, we know that Jack the Ripper was probably a mysogynist with paranoia and some sort of severe psychosis which drove him to murder and mutilate women, and hence we can conclude that Jodi's killer probably had a similar mind set, yes?
Another interesting fact about Kosminsky was that he was living with his brother and his family at the time of the murders and had been losing control for some time, at one stage attacking his sister with a knife!
I will say no more!

 

[Joe Blogs]

Oh, and Kosminski was 26 years old at the time of the murders,having been ill since he was about 23!

[Vertigo Swirl]

I watched that programme too and wasn’t entirely convinced by the evidence that it was Kominski tbh.  I also don’t think it’s wise to attempt to draw any learnings from the Jack the Ripper case to apply to LM.  For a start, if [Name removed] was murdered in a random attack by a woman hating psychopath then where are all the other similar attacks in the local area?  Furthermore there was a case in the USA featuring a young male teen who murdered his girlfriend or ex girlfriend in a similarly gruesome way, a case which has been discussed on here before - he only murdered the one time and was not judged to by a paranoid schizophrenic so what inference can we draw from his case to apply to Luke Mitchell?
ETA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Tristyn_Bailey

[Joe Blogs]

I watched that programme too and wasn’t entirely convinced by the evidence that it was Kominski tbh.  I also don’t think it’s wise to attempt to draw any learnings from the Jack the Ripper case to apply to LM.  For a start, if [Name removed] was murdered in a random attack by a woman hating psychopath then where are all the other similar attacks in the local area?  Furthermore there was a case in the USA featuring a young male teen who murdered his girlfriend or ex girlfriend in a similarly gruesome way, a case which has been discussed on here before - he only murdered the one time and was not judged to by a paranoid schizophrenic so what inference can we draw from his case to apply to Luke Mitchell?
ETA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Tristyn_Bailey

Thanks Vertigo.
Yes, a similar sounding crime, but only stab wounds. Why didn't LM simply stab Jodi if he wanted to kill someone?
And notice the Bailey murderer claimed to hear voices too!
I think there are more similarities to the Ripper murders.
But yes, many people ask why no other murders have taken place in Dalkeith if the killer is still at large, is it possible that they are being kept under control by psychotic drugs? This has been suggested as you know.
Do you think mysogyny came into the murder of Jodi, Vertigo? Do you think LM was a mysogynist?
Judging by his life style, it doesn't really look like Luke had a dislike for women does it?
Wonder what the FBI report said? Didn't agree that Luke fitted the profile of Jodi's killer anyway!
Its a mystery, Vertigo, its a mystery!